• 12"x 16" image size (14"x 18" paper size) / 100 prints / 20"x 24" matting size

Louisiana has more than 5000 miles of navigable waterways and New Orleans's location near the mouth of the Mississippi River, with access to the agricultural and industrial heart lands of the United States, helped to make it one of the nation's busiest ports. By the mid-1800s, New Orleans had grown into a major port and one of the largest cities in the United States. To protect the city from the Mississippi River's floodwaters, levees were built to contain the river.

Robert Fulton designed the first paddle wheel steamboat in 1807, inaugurating a new era of power-driven navigation. The first steamboat arrived in New Orleans in January of 1812. The crudely-built boat, named the New Orleans, arrived in the Crescent City from Pittsburgh to begin the steamboat era.

By the 1840's, Mississippi River steamboats had banquet-sized dining rooms, ladies sitting rooms, orchestras and promenades. Thousands of large and small steamboats cruised the waterways in Louisiana. Steamboats carried people and products such as cotton, tobacco, and livestock. There was regular steamboat service across Lake Ponchartrain between New Orleans and Madisonville to the north.

The steamboat of inland rivers differed from the ocean or lake steamship. The steamboat rested on the water while the steamship sat in the water. This distinction allowed the steamboat to traverse every navigable stream and bayou in Louisiana. The engines of the steamboat were also laid down rather that up.

Their peak of importance came in the 1860's. The days of the steamboat came to an end when railways took over. In 1991, gambling on Mississippi riverboats was revived in Iowa.